International Women's Day Protest Demands Freedom For Palestinian Women Political Prisoners

inminds16 March 2016

Free Shireen Issawi

On Friday 11th March 2016, in a week that marked International Womens Day, activists from Inminds gathered outside Westminster Palace, the seat of the British Government, to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian women political prisoners, in particular the 61 Palestinian women and girls who are currently caged in Israeli occupation dungeons.

They projected messages and images of the women prisoners on the walls of the Parliament. The projection garnered a wide audience, one person having seen the projection from the London Eye, walked all the way to Westminster to thank the activists for the projection.

Speeches were made on how three of the 13 imprisoned young girls - aged 14-16 years old, were brutally tortured during their interrogation. Also the case of 12 years old Dima Wawi was highlighted. She was abducted on her way to school, then interrogated illegally without the presence of her parents or her lawyer, before being locked up - possibly the youngest political prisoner in the world.

Wonderful news was announced during the protest that Mona Qadan, a Palestinian university lecturer who was locked up for her activism - one of the women prisoners we have been campaigning for for several years, has just been released.

Several hundred leaflets were handed out on Lena Jarbouni, the longest serving Palestinian woman political prisoners - caged for 14 years now, which also highlighted the conditions women prisoners have to suffer at Israel's notorious HaSharon womens prison.

The British security company G4S secures HaSharon prison, along with many other Israeli prisons and interrogation centres, for Israel. They provide the entire security system for the prison including the central command room from where the whole prison is controlled. This week G4S announced its intention to sell its Israel operation within the next 12-24 months. This is not the first time G4S had made similar promises, and in the past it has not kept them. Activists from Inminds, who have held regular protests, every week or every other week, outside the global headquarters of G4S in London for nearly 4 years had a clear message for G4S - we dont want promises, we want action, and we want it now! Inminds sustained campaign against G4S continues..

VIDEO - Palestinian Women Prisoners Remembered on International Women's Day

Speech

This week marks International Womens Day. We are here today outside Westminster Palace, the set of the British government, to draw attention to the plight of Palestinian women and young girls who are caged and routinely tortured in Israeli dungeons.

Since 1967 over 15,000 women have been abducted and caged in Israeli occupation prisons. Today Israel imprisons 61 Palestinian female political prisoners including 13 young girls some as young as 12 years old.

At least three of the girls have been brutally tortured during interrogation. 14-year-old Rama Jaabis, 16-year-old Malak Salman and 16-year-old Sajida Hassan have all suffered similar mistreatment being forced to lie on the floor, shackled and then brutally beaten and abused by interrogators.

Another girl 16 years old Marah Bakeer was shot 10 times in the arm whilst on her way to school , then she was then stripped of her cloths to her underwear and soldiers took selfie photographs with her against her will whilst she lay in a pool of blood. Her wounds were not allowed to heal and she was imprisoned whilst in need of medical care.

12 years old Dima Wawi was abducted on her way to school, her parents were not allowed to see her and she was interrogated in contravention of international law without the presence of her parents or a lawyer. When her parents finally saw her at military court nearly two weeks later, she was still wearing the same school uniform she had on when she was arrested.

Among the women prisoners are Palestinian human rights lawyer Shireen Issawi, who is being persecuted simply for defending Palestinian political prisoners. Last week the military court sentenced her to 4 years imprisonment simply for her work with Palestinian prisoners.

Palestinian members of parliament are also regularly targeted. Khalida Jarrar is serving a 15month sentence for her work in support of Palestinian prisoners.

The longest serving woman prisoner is Lena Jarbouni who has been caged for 14 years of a 17 year sentence, her crime is to support the just struggle against the illegal occupation of her land. To extract her forced confession they threatened to torture her elderly mother, having already tortured her brother and sister in front of her.

Mona Qadan is a university lecturer, she was targeted because of her activism against the occupation. She has never been allowed to see her family in over 3 years. We have just heard some wonderful news on the way to the protest, that late last night Mona Qadan was finally released! The first thing she did upon her freedom was to hold a press conference and appeal on behalf of the young Palestinian girls caged by Israel.

Most of the women are caged in Israels notorious HaSharon prison. At HaSharon Palestinian women prisoners have to endure beatings, insults, threats, sexually explicit harassment and sexual violence, and humiliation at the hands of Israeli guards. They are often forced to undergo degrading strip searches during the middle of the night - forced to squat naked and subjected to intrusive internal body searches, for no reason other than as a punitive measure. Women have been beaten and left tied to their bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet as punishment for spilling water.

The cells at HaSharon prison are overcrowded, dirty and infected with rodents and cockroaches. There is a total absence of basic hygiene, women have even been denied sanitary pads when menstruating. The heat is unbearable, The windows are closed and covered so that hardly any air or daylight can enter. The food is insufficient, and of inferior quality & dirty, often containing insects & worms, at times there are not enough portions for all the women.

HaSharon is secured by the British security company G4S. They provide the entire security system for the prison including the central command room from where the whole prison is controlled. This week G4S announced its intention to sell its Israel operation within the next 12-24 months. This is not the first time G4S had made similar promises, and in the past it has not kept them. We are here to say to G4S that we dont want their promises, we want action, and we want it now! Today, this very moment G4S is helping Israel torture and cage Palestinians, including young children. We want that to end, we demand G4S exit Israel now!

Free Palestine!

Free Mona Qadan - she was actually finally released few hours before the protest..

"For most journalists, whether they realize it or not, are groomed to be tribunes of an ideology that regards itself as non-ideological, that presents itself as the natural center, the very fulcrum of modern life. This may very well be the most powerful and dangerous ideology we have ever known because it is open-ended. This is liberalism."